For the third straight year, the Boston Celtics selected in the first round of the NBA Draft, and it was on a center/forward in Chris Cenac Jr. with the 27th overall pick in the 2026 NBA Draft. He is a 19-year-old that just completed his first season for the University of Houston under head coach Calvin Sampson.

Cenac is 6-foot-11 with a 7-foot-5 wingspan and is 240 lbs. He started 36 of 37 games and averaged 9.5 points and 7.9 rebounds per game. He’s not a shy 3-point shooter, but the consistency needs to improve from 33.3%. That said, he’s still productive on the offensive end, shooting 48.5% from the field.

Team President of Basketball Operations, Brad Stevens, recently expressed his desire to add size and speed around the perimeter, and the addition of Cenac certainly addresses those needs. After the first round on Tuesday night, Stevens spoke to the media on the decision to draft Cenac.

“Yeah, I mean I think he has a lot to learn- a long way to go, he’s got a lot of room to grow. But when you’re that age and you are that valued coming out of high school and then you go and you play for Coach Sampson, and he does not let you off the hook for one mistake over the course of a full year. And in everything that we learned about Chris and everything that coaches told me is that he was pretty hard on him and he was on him and all he did was come to work. And I think that’s a really impressive quality for a young guy. When I watched him play live several times this year, he didn’t always play well, but I never walked out of the gym thinking he didn’t play hard and didn’t really really really go after it. And so I think that’s a good place to start.”

Stevens isn’t expecting for Cenac to contribute too much in his rookie season, but he’d like to get him on their development plan so that he can start to do the things that Boston needs from him. It’s still possible that Cenac could end up on a two-way contract depending on how the Celtics handle that element since they currently don’t have an available two-way contract to offer at this time.

Cenac has a great repertoire to his game for a big man. He has a great hop-step and knows how to maneuver his body in and around the paint. Cenac also has a nice shooting touch from the midrange and the high post. He’s a rim runner in every sense of the meaning and Boston desperately needs that type of player on the floor.

Cenac went to the University of Houston as a five-star prospect and was the No. 1 ranked center in the class of 2025. He’s only 19-years-old after one collegiate season and comes to Boston with tremendous upside.

It’s important to keep in mind that the Celtics will likely hit free agency with 15 players under contract, but four of those players are on non-guaranteed deals: Dalano Banton, Max Shulga, Amari Williams, Ron Harper Jr.

Boston also has the 40th overall pick in the second day of the NBA Draft on Wednesday.

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